Two years ago, when the Orioles opened at Tropicana Field, Peter Schmuck, Jeff Zrebiec and I went to an Italian restaurant in Tampa the night before the opener.
And while waiting for our food we decided to make random predictions about the Orioles. We ended up sharing it in a blog, and for some reason, it was well received.
Zrebiec is now anchoring our coverage of that World Champion football team in Baltimore and Ed Encina joined our crew last year.
And we decided to keep a tradition alive — or at least make it two times in three years — with Ed on board.
We’ll separate this in two parts. The second comes tomorrow. But here are 10 predictions today for the Orioles’ season:
Home run leader
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Matt Wieters, 30 | Matt Wieters, 29 | Chris Davis, 29 |
RBI leader
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| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Adam Jones, 102 | Wieters, 97 | Wieters, 93 |
Average leader
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Nick Markakis, .308 | Markakis, .305 | Manny Machado, .299 |
Wins leader
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Wei-Yin Chen, 14 | Jason Hammel, 15 | Miguel Gonzalez, 16 |
Saves
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Jim Johnson, 39 | Johnson, 42 | Johnson, 38 |
Orioles wins
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| 87 | 91 | 88 |
ERA Leader
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Chen, 3.46 | Chen, 3.27 | Chris Tillman, 3.71 |
Stolen base leader
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Nate McLouth, 22 | McLouth, 27 | Jones 22 |
Pitchers’ strikeouts
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Jake Arrieta, 146 | Hammel, 130 | Tillman, 127 |
Hitters’ strikeouts
| Dan | Ed | Pete |
| Davis, 142 | Davis, 150 | Davis 137 |